The 2026 Tour de France is about to write a historic page : for the first time in its 123-year history, the world's most important race will start with a team time trial. The Grand Départ will be hosted by Barcelona, with a 19.7-kilometer route that will finish in the shadow of the 1992 Olympic stadium on Montjuïc hill.

An important novelty also concerns the time trial regulations : the same timing system tested at Paris-Nice 2023 will be used, where each rider receives his own actual arrival time, abandoning the traditional rule of the fourth rider's time for the entire team.

This innovation, which saw Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogačar in an exciting duel at Paris-Nice, opens up new tactical scenarios: captains will be able to choose whether to stay with their teammates or attempt a solo action to gain precious seconds.

The Spanish programme includes three stages in total : after the opening time trial, the second stage will start from Tarragona (the southernmost point ever reached by the Tour) and finish in Barcelona after 178km, with a final circuit of 12km that includes the climb to Montjuïc Castle – a 1.6km wall with an average gradient of 9.3%.

"We tried to design the most challenging route possible among the various options available," said race director Thierry Gouvenou. The third stage will start from Granollers, with the finish in France still to be defined.